Munich 2017

The Alluxity Media One (£8900 in black or white), which I reported on from Munich in 2015, is being covered again for two reasons; the photo of the custom orange finish is orangicious and Alluxity made the wise move of pairing up with Joseph Audio.

I took a photo of my AudioQuest DragonFly Red before and after the MQA update ($free) so you can experience the change and not have to rely on what I have to say about it. Above is the before photo. Here's after:

Serbia-based Auris' D2D High End DAC (£3,990) is all leather and walnut niceness so I hate to sully it with 1x USB, 3x Coax (RCA), 3x TosLink, and up to DSD128/32bit/384kHz for USB, max 24bit/192kHz for Coax and Toslink. You can also add Bluetooth or WiFi Airplay/DLNA modules.

I like Ayre Acoustics. I own their AX-5 Twenty integrated amplifier, have met and interviewed Charley Hansen, and enjoyed their QB-9 DSD DAC and QX-5 Twenty Digital Hub. So it is with great pleasure and anticipation that I share the forthcoming Ayes AX-8 Integrated Amplifier ($TBD but think a double digit % decrease from the AX-5 twenty).

For all of the ins and outs on the CanEver Audio ZeroUno DAC ($7990), read thee Art Dudley's review in Stereophile (I think he liked it). I'm going to review a newer incarnation that includes a few upgrades including, but not limited to, MQA.

Color! That, is a stack of CAD Ground Control GC1s ($1850/each). From the company:

Over the past 10+ years the amount of high frequency noise on our Mains power has increased dramatically due to the use of computers, routers, modems, wifi, switch mode power supplies, etc. The high frequency noise that is generated within our audio systems has also increased: DACs, Servers, Computers, NAS drives, Routers, WiFi, etc. are all connected directly to our audio systems.

CAD believes that one of the key reasons so many digital audio products “sound digital” is due to this high frequency noise.

At €399.00, the new Dali Katch is a cute yet not inexpensive portable battery-powered Bluetooth (apt-X) speaker wrapped in aluminum and topped off with a leather handle that also includes an analog input, USB charge port so you can keep your phone juiced on the go, two " Audio Profiles" ('Clear' and 'Warm'), a place to stick your Chromecast dongle, 24-hour battery life, and stereo pairing for the well-heeled looking for stereo separation. But what about that price? How many people are really going to fork out 400 smackers for a battery-powered Bluetooth speaker, let alone double that for two?

Pictured is the dCS Rossini Player, which received a favorable review from John Atkinson in Stereophile, just received a firmware update making it MQA-enabled. John Quick, General Manager at dCS Americas Inc., played some wonderful tunes, as usual, and the dCS/D'Agostino/Wilson system sounded superb, as usual. We then did a comparison between Ray Charles and Milt Jackson's "So Long Blues" from Soul Brothers; non-MQA vs. MQA.